Cricket Fever!

Indian and Pakistani Flags

I was one of the estimated one billion people around the world today who watched the World Cup cricket semifinal between India and Pakistan in Mohali.  I would not count myself as one of the most knowledgeable or dedicated fans watching- Pakistan declared a national half-day holiday in honor of the match and most of India ground to a halt while the game was being played.  India won by 29 runs and will play Sri Lanka in the final game, being held on Saturday in Mumbai.  One of the highlights of the game, of course, was the fact that the prime ministers of both India and Pakistan were in attendance (sitting behind some very thick glass looking very serious- Manmohan Singh did clap when India won) as well as Sonia Gandhi.  I can only imagine how tight security was.   


I almost included a YouTube of match highlights I found on HuffPost but it was a little... slow.  I am the first to confess that my entire knowledge of cricket consists of watching Lagaan three times (it's a great addition to teaching British imperialism), which means that my vision of cricket involves an evil, back-handed British empire dressed in white trying to take advantage of a rag-tag, heart-felt, almost painfully-obviously diverse and loveable crew of Indians headed by a very cute Aamir Khan.  Not so instructive, really, despite the fact the game took up at least 4 hours of the movie.  There's pitches and bats and bowls and fields and creases and overs and most excitingly wickets, and I'm not quite sure what any of them are (although the players often seemed to be standing in or near the crease a lot this morning, whatever that means).  No, I did not get up at the crack of dawn this morning (when did the live feed start, 2am?) so I just caught the end when I got up.  Definitely not a dedicated cricket fan!


I believe I have a strategy to get into cricket, however.  When Lebron James was part of the Cleveland Cavaliers I ended up watching an inordinate number of Cavs games because my husband, who grew up outside of Cleveland, was a serious fan.  I don't really do basketball, or care that much about it, but I developed a fondness for Mo Williams, because he was a small and energetic Lebron backup, and an inordinate liking for Anderson Varejao, because he had a fabulous mop of hair that flopped around as he ran up and down the court.   So I just need to find myself a rather interesting Indian cricket player, preferably with exciting hair, and I might be more motivated to watch, and perhaps learn, a few rules of cricket.   Any suggestions?